Meet the Judges

Mark Gainsborough

Mark was recently appointed to lead Shell's recently created New Energies business, focusing on lower carbon energy solutions. He has spent over 30 years in the energy business, working in marketing, sales, supply chain, trading and strategy roles. He is currently based in Singapore.

He has worked extensively on a range of environmental and sustainability issues and completed a Masters Degree in Environmental Policy in 2008. In past roles he developed Shell’s strategy in Alternative Energies and made investments in a range of biofuels technologies. He was responsible for the formation of the Raizen JV in Brazil, which is now the world’s largest producer of sugar cane ethanol. He led the Shell contribution to the WBCSD report on Sustainable Mobility, published in 2005, which anticipated many of the technology trends seen in the last 10 years. He is a Fellow of the UK Energy Institute.

Maytha Al Habsi

With a proven track record of over 13 years of executive experience in driving change management and leadership, Maytha Al Habsi saw the inception of Emirates Foundation in April 2005. Maytha was profiled as one of UAE’s top Inspirational leaders in 2014, and named among the ‘Top 20 Most Influential Women in the UAE’’ by The National in 2007, a board member at Emirates Entrepreneur Association and she joined the judges panel of the Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators awards in 2015.

As a leading UAE National figure in the field of Philanthropy & Youth Development, Al Habsi expertise focuses on the creation and delivery of programmes that empower youth to develop long-life skills that will enable them to take up leadership positions in the future. More specifically and in her leading role as the Chief Programmes Officer at Emirates Foundation she has successfully established a solid foundation for the organization’s programmes and initiatives to deliver sustainable and measurable social impact that touched the lives of thousands of young people and their families inside the UAE and beyond. In addition, she lead the establishment of a unique platform for young social entrepreneur across the GCC, the Emirates Awards for Arabian Gulf Youth, which aims to unlock the Youths creativity to solve the challenges facing society through the creation of social enterprises.

Al Habsi’s success over the past 10 years, led to her promotion to Deputy Chief Executive Officer in January 2016. In her capacity as Deputy CEO, she focuses on positioning the Foundation as a thought leader in the venture philanthropy and social investment space across the Arab world; and strengthening its contribution to the overall vision of the UAE.

While still retaining her Chief Programs Officer position, Al Habsi oversees the strategic development of the Emirates Foundation, supporting the scale up of its 6 core programmes and sharpening their operational performance with a focus on creating revenue opportunities to ensure their long-term viability.

Prior to joining the Emirates Foundation, Al Habsi held leading positions in the communications department of Dolphin Energy Limited and Mubadala for Development. She is a graduate of the American University of Washington DC in Graphic Design and Communications. She was accredited with certificates in management and leadership from Sandhurst University in the United Kingdom.

Esther Wang

Esther was the Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovator, Global Winner in 2015.

After volunteering in a children’s hospital, she turned her insights into an innovative product – Rabbit Ray, which explains medical procedures through play. With an eye for details and turnkey product development knowledge, she founded Joytingle.

Since winning the Shell LiveWIRE Global Innovator Award, Esther brought Rabbit Ray from 6 hospitals in 3 countries to 40 hospitals in 11 countries. She is excited about the next Shell LiveWIRE award and looks forward to hearing how it will impact their business – just as it did for her’s.

Esther is also an art lover, TEDx Speaker and continues to volunteer as a teacher to a fortnight class of 70 kids.

Lindalia Junqueira Reis

CEO Ions Innovation Consulting, Executive Director of Gávea Angels Investments Group, Board member of Finep (Financier of Studies and Projects), SET Innovation Committee (TV Engineering Society) and Board member of MIT Technology Review. Production Engineer by Federal University Rio de Janeiro Bachelor of Music, Master Business Executive of 3rd Sector Management.

Executive Manager I9 Globo TV Innovation Progam, IBC Innovation Awards 2012, selected by Singularity University NASA Ames, and as a Director of Innovation at Estácio University, created the EspaçoNave, the first pre acceleration program for entrepreneurs in Brazil, elected the Best Accelerator by the Bizpark Awards 2015.

Gwen Abiola-Oloke

Gwen is an Investment Director and leads the expansion and deepening of GroFin’s operations in West Africa.

GroFin is a development financier providing medium term risk capital and business support services to SMEs across Africa and the Middle East.

Prior to now, Gwen has 23 years of financial services experience culminating as Country CEO of a Pan African bank. She has strong networks across West Africa with governments, private sector leaders and development finance institutions.

She is a Collaborating Researcher for the UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) and co-authored several publications on access to finance, sustainable financing, financial inclusion, women entrepreneurship, food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Gwen has been involved in the past 20 years with SMEs, capacity building, leadership development, gender mainstreaming, sustainable community-based development initiatives and philanthropy.